Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 20 - Chapter 7.1

hardcore level.1: Dragon Riders

This day had been a long time coming.

Yori loved her great-grandmother. Loved her from the bottom of her heart. Her beloved, beloved great-grandma. Though, it wasn’t just Yori who loved and respected her great-grandma. Great-grandma had been the living encyclopedia of their tribe. They’d had all sorts of names for her, like the great mother, and godmom, and so on, but Yori was able to call her great-grandma because they were related by blood.

I’m great-grandma’s great-granddaughter.

Just thinking that gave her power. It let her believe she was invincible. There wasn’t a thing Yori couldn’t do. There was no goal she couldn’t accomplish if she set her mind to it. Nothing was impossible.

When a child was born into the tribe, great-grandma was always the one to name them. So, of course, great-grandma was the one who had named Yori Yori.

Yori was the second Yori of her tribe. She hadn’t met the first Yori herself, though. Her great- grandmother had only had one son, and that son’s first daughter was named Yori. So the first Yori was her great-grandmother’s first granddaughter. But the first Yori had apparently died young.

She’d heard that if her great-grandmother’s only son had been born a girl instead, she would have named him Yori. Great-grandma had an emotional attachment to that name. And great-grandma had given that name to Yori. That made Yori special.

When Yori begged her dear, dear great-grandmother for a story, great-grandma would beckon to her, and let Yori sit on her lap. The others would tell her that the great mother was too old to be doing that anymore, and that it would be terrible if it affected her health, and all sorts of other things they shouldn’t have said, but great-grandma didn’t care in the slightest. Great-grandma’s stories were all incredibly interesting. Yori loved all of them, and remembered them precisely. But Yori’s favorites were the tales of adventure in Grimgar.

Long, long ago, great-grandma had lived north of the Tenryus. She hadn’t been alone. She’d had comrades, and together with them, she’d gone on unbelievably grand adventures.

Yori could imitate great-grandma’s unusual storytelling style perfectly. Great-grandma had met lots of people in Grimgar, and been through many heart-pounding battles. She’d had painful partings as well. The man who had become Yori’s great-grandfather had been one of great-grandma’s adventuring companions.

After that, great-grandma had escaped from Grimgar during the great cataclysm, and crossed over to the Red Continent. She hadn’t been willing to talk much about how she had been forced to flee in desperation while protecting her only son. It had been so hectic and difficult that she’d said she didn’t remember what happened very well.

However, even once she reached the Red Continent, great-grandma probably hadn’t had much time to rest. “Maybe not,” great-grandma would say with a smile. “It was fun, though, and there was all sorts of stuff goin’ on.”

The reason that “all sorts of stuff” happened was because great-grandma had been incredibly popular wherever she went. According to the stories told in their clan, there had been thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of men who had tried to court her. But great-grandma never got into a relationship with any of them. Yori had heard time and again how cool and amazing her great-grandfather had been. After praising him to high heaven, great-grandma would always say, “The only reason everyone’s here is because of him.”

Great-grandma was singly devoted in her love, and Yori thought that was a wonderful thing. She admired her for it. Yori hoped she could be the same. No, she would be. When Yori found somebody to love, she’d never betray them. And she’d never let them betray her. Yori would love only that person for all her life, and only let that person ever love her.

Great-grandma was a tolerant person. Her patience was deeper than the boundless sea. She’d often said, “Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend.” When the time came that she had to shake hands with old enemies, she always initiated it, never making them extend their hand first. She was flexible, but had an incredibly strong will. She even smiled when telling sad stories. When she got mad, she was so terrifying that the whole tribe shuddered, but then she’d go back to smiling again in no time.

“There’s somethin’ your great-grandma forgot in Grimgar. And someone’s gotta go get it. Do y’think you could go and do that for your great-grandma, Yori?”

Great-grandma had only said that to Yori once. Never again. They had been alone at the time, with no one else around. Of course, Yori had promised to go. But when she did, great-grandma shook her head and said there was no need to promise.

“Yori, you should do whatever it is you want to do. That’s how your great-grandma’s always lived her life. So, Yori, you live for Yori. Can you promise that?”

Of course, Yori had made that promise to her great-grandma. But she had made a point of not specifying what she meant by doing so. She was going to go and get whatever it was that great-grandma had left behind, because that was what Yori wanted to do. She loved and admired her great-grandma beyond compare. If her great-grandma had a wish that she couldn’t fulfill herself anymore, then Yori would make it come true in her place. That was Yori’s own wish.

“Karambit!” Yori called out at the entrance to a dragon hole, and a screech responded from deep inside.

The hole was about four meters across, and more than twenty meters deep. There were eight dragon holes about halfway up Step Mountain, which was located on the southern side of the Tenryus, and one winged dragon was being raised in each of them.

“Ushaska!”

There was another voice calling for a different dragon at a neighboring hole. Yori looked over to see Riyo looking back at her. Yori wasn’t very fond of her blood-related little sister. When she’d been younger, Yori had adored her, and she didn’t hate the girl now, but she’d gotten sick of Riyo following her everywhere. For one thing, her sister was a year and a half younger than her, and used to be so little, but then she’d pulled a growth spurt, and now Riyo stood about a head taller than Yori. Just try to put yourself in Yori’s shoes, being followed around by a little sister who’s way bigger than you. She got in the way all the time, and was annoying and creepy.

Yori looked back at the dragon hole. Right before she had done that, Riyo had opened her mouth as if to say something, but as usual, now she was going to just slump her shoulders and keep it to herself. Yori wished she’d stop acting like that. It made it seem like Yori was being mean to her. But all she was doing was ignoring her annoying little sister. She was expressing with her attitude that it was time for Riyo to grow up and become independent. She’d told her little sister that too. Repeatedly. But Riyo wouldn’t listen. Yori’s little sister was such a dunderhead. Ah, by the way, dunderhead was a word great-grandma used. When someone went too far, she’d be like, “Oh, you’re such a dunderhead.” Though, maybe only Yori used it now. She had a number of great-grandma-isms like that. Quite a few, actually. But anyway, Riyo was a real dunderhead.

Karambit crawled up out of the dragon hole. The winged dragons they raised on Step Mountain were small to medium size for dragons from the Tenryu Mountains, and even then, they never got bigger than the low end of medium size. They had wing membranes on their front legs which allowed them to fly, their necks were a little on the long side, and they were quite skilled with their tongues. Their rear legs had a streamlined look to them, but they had considerable kicking power.

Karambit poked its head out of the dragon hole, and immediately started licking Yori’s face with its reddish-purple tongue.

“Whoa, Karambit! Ah ha! Hey! Hee hee!”

Yori grabbed Karambit’s head with her hand, but didn’t try to stop the dragon from licking her. The skin of a winged dragon was covered with something that was like a midpoint between scales and feathers. It wasn’t soft or hard. Its texture was indescribable, but felt amazing to touch. Their saliva was smooth, and had a surprisingly mellow taste. Their breath wasn’t particularly bad unless they had just eaten. Humans who didn’t brush their teeth were far worse. Though, maybe Yori only thought that because she was used to it.

Karambit had still been an egg when they’d first met, so Yori had known this winged dragon since before it had hatched. She’d spent five years learning to be a dragon tamer as she raised the dragon to this size.

“There, there. You’re a good girl, Karambit. Yori loves you. Almost as much as she loves her great-grandma. Ha ha! Stop it! Don’t get mad. It was always gonna be this way. You never stood a chance against great-grandma. But you’re still special, Karambit. You’re gonna carry Yori south of the Tenryus now. Riyo’s gonna come along too, though. She’s such a dunderhead. It’s so annoying. But oh well. You already know this, but Ushaska’s a good girl. Unlike Riyo, it won’t be so bad having her along with us. You agree, don’t you? There, there, there...”

It had all been for this day.

Raising dragons was incredibly dangerous. One in five dragon tamers would be killed by a hatchling, and two more would be killed during the juvenile stage. Only the two still alive after that would get to become dragon tamers. But even after becoming full-fledged tamers, many still died. It had always been rash to try and tame dragons, hadn’t it? That was an opinion that was still strongly held in some quarters. But if care was put into raising them, some dragons would grow attached to humans like these ones had. They might not do everything they were told, but they would listen to the caregivers who’d raised them. That was why if you wanted to be a dragon rider, you had to become a dragon tamer first.

The Tenryus couldn’t be crossed on foot. The line of extraordinarily tall mountains stretched out as far as the eye could see, and they were home to dragons and other related subspecies that were too big or vicious to ever be tamed, as well as horrifying beasts like the spotted bear and ashen panther, which could even devour dragons. Once upon a time, there had been a tunnel through them—the Earth Dragon’s Aorta—but the Kingdom of Arabakia had collapsed it, and it was now impassable. Short of borrowing the help of the elusive gnome race, it would never be possible to open that path again.

Sea routes were more practical, but every plan for exploration or colonization that went through the Coral Archipelago and Emerald Archipelago had ended in failure.

Every member of the tribe knew that great-grandma longed for a return to Grimgar. But it wasn’t only their tribe that had an emotional attachment to the continent.

It had been over forty years since the tribe had started a joint venture with a company to expand south of the Tenryus. The north of the Tenryus was Grimgar, but the south of the Tenryus was both Grimgar and at the same time not Grimgar. It had been controlled by the Lion God King, Obdoo, who commanded the seventeen beast god tribes, while the remnants of the dismembered Kingdom of Arabakia lived on the run. The tribe and the company had absorbed the survivors of the kingdom, defeated the Lion God King, and made peace with thirteen of the beast god tribes, establishing a united kingdom a little over two decades ago.

Yori hugged Karambit around the neck as she pulled her beloved winged dragon out of the hole. Of course, if Karambit resisted, then even with all her might, Yori wouldn’t have been able to make the dragon budge. If Karambit really didn’t want to come out, the dragon could’ve bitten her head. But Yori couldn’t let herself tense up because of that possibility, since dragons were sensitive to that sort of thing. Dragons were capable of love, but they could never love someone who feared them. A dragon tamer could never let themselves be awed, and at the same time they couldn’t underestimate their dragon. If they let themselves be overwhelmed, they had to expect resistance, and even if they showed their dragon love, they couldn’t count on being loved in return. Even if they were about to be devoured, they had to love their dragon to the very last moment. Only a dragon tamer who offered themselves up body and soul would be loved by the dragons.

Over at the neighboring hole, Riyo had already gotten onto Ushaska’s back. Back when her little sister had first begun holding Ushaska’s egg to warm it with her body heat, she’d been much smaller than her big sister, and had been clumsy and awkward at everything. In all honesty, Yori had worried that raising a winged dragon would prove too much for Riyo, and had repeatedly tried to convince her to give it up. But even though her little sister would do almost anything she asked—except when she asked Riyo to stop following her around—the younger girl had stubbornly refused.

Yori lowered Karambit’s head, had the dragon crouch down, and threw a saddle over its back. As she got into the saddle, Yori thought, Now that I think about it, that was when this all started. When she had started raising her dragon, her little sister had started training to build muscle. She’d trained under a man who’d come from who-knows-where to learn some strange martial arts, and she’d started reading a whole lot of books too. Then she’d started eating a ton. Before Yori knew it, her little sister had caught up to her in height. Then she’d quickly passed her. That was good, in some ways. All of that training had meant her sister had less time to follow her around. But then, after a good long time of not seeing her, Riyo would suddenly show back up. Yori might go to sleep in her own room, only to find her oversized little sister curled up next to her in a way that looked uncomfortable when she awoke.

“Karambit.” Yori leaned forward to hug the winged dragon gently around the neck and to whisper in its ear. “You’re all Yori needs. Despite all their talk about it, nobody else is serious about crossing the Tenryu Mountains, so the plan was going to be for you and Yori to go alone. And Yori really was fine with that.”

Karambit let out an indulgent squeal. The dragon’s eyes, with irises that were a complex mix of orange and green, stared back at Yori. Yori almost smiled, but then sat up straight.

“Yori! I’m going on ahead!” her little sister declared, making Ushaska’s winged front legs flap as she began racing down the slope. There were types of flying dragons that could take off vertically, but these winged dragons needed a running start in order to fly.

Ushaska took off.

Yori slapped Karambit gently on the neck and whistled. Karambit took off running. A dragon rider needed to do more than just hang on for dear life. Yori put her feet in the stirrups of her saddle and raised her hips. She had to match the dragon’s movements, controlling her body flexibly so as to never kill their momentum. But at the same time, she had to keep her core steady, so that she didn’t become unstable. There were running dragons, pure dragons, winged dragons, and more, but the differences between individual dragons went beyond just their species. Each one also had its own personality. Trying to make a dragon match its rider wouldn’t work. The rider had to match themselves to their dragon. Only once they accomplished that would the dragon begin to try and match their rider. The key things were its pulse and its breathing. If the rider could sense their dragon’s pulse and breathing, their movements would match naturally.

Yori loved the feeling when her winged dragon kicked off of the ground and soared into the air. In that moment, Karambit felt a pleasure like every cell in its body was buzzing at once, and in their many flights together, Yori had learned to feel it too.

“Okay, Karambit, the castle. You know where that is. We’re going to the castle first, so you don’t have to fly too high. That’s right. You know just what to do, Karambit.”

With a few words and a gesture from Yori, Karambit turned south. They were only around three hundred meters in the air. Riyo was up ahead, riding on Ushaska’s back. It felt like Karambit wanted to catch up to Ushaska.

“Oh, fine. Go on, Karambit. Catch up to them.”

When Yori spoke, Karambit started flapping faster. With each flap, the distance to Ushaska shortened.

Yori and Karambit, along with Riyo and Ushaska, had to visit the castle for a ceremony after this. It wasn’t necessary, but Yori and Riyo were direct descendants of their great-grandma, after all. That made them royalty in the united kingdom. In fact, the two of them were proper royals, referred to as princesses and everything. Two princesses were about to depart on a journey across the Tenryus on dragonback, and that was going to cause a bit of a stir. But they couldn’t just leave without saying anything, so they had to at least let the higher-ups in the united kingdom know. In their position, they couldn’t just say, “We’re going,” and let that be the end of it, so the decision had been made to hold a ceremony. Actually, it was apparently going to be a pretty major affair.

“It’s a pain in the backside, but we can put up with it one last time. Right, Karambit?”

Karambit let out a cry, and Yori laughed.

Karambit would soon catch Ushaska. Riyo glanced back. It was just for a moment, but her eyes clearly locked on to Yori. Even though Yori had been hoping to finally get away from her sister once she crossed the Tenryus into Grimgar proper.

Karambit passed Ushaska.

Yori wanted to leave her little sister behind. She was going to go get what her great-grandma had left in Grimgar, to make her elder’s wish come true. That was a certainty. Yori would definitely do it. But even if that was her intent, she had no guarantee that she’d be able to make it back alive. She was going to Grimgar, after all. She hadn’t wanted to bring her little sister along. She had a lot of problems with Riyo following her, so she’d tried to push her away. But the little sister acted almost as if she knew what her big sister was planning, and raised a dragon, and kept on getting bigger and stronger.

“Stubborn girl. You’re such an idiot. Oh, there’s no helping you!”

Even without turning to look, Yori knew that Ushaska was right on Karambit’s tail. Riyo had her eyes on Yori’s back. The little sister would try to protect her big sister no matter what. She wasn’t that same little Riyo anymore. She’d grown enough now that her big sister could trust her to watch her back.

Two people and two dragons crossed the Tenryu Mountains into Grimgar.

Yori didn’t think about what would be waiting for them there, because Yori was the one who’d been waiting. She’d been dreaming of Grimgar all this time. They were going, two people and two dragons, to make their dreams and wishes come true.